The german world record chart(s)

In 1989 the south german radio station SDR3 had the idea of broadcasting a very long record breaking chart with the best songs of all time. The SDR3 listeners were asked to vote their All-Time TOP5 songs. The result was the biggest charts ever, which was broadcasted by DJ Thomas Schmidt and Stefan Siller. In more than a week both DJ's played in 8-hour-shifts a total of 1.501 songs only interrupted with the hourly news and traffic announcements. With this event both DJ entered the Guiness Book of Records. The whole event turned out to be a big thing at the time and they even played the "long songs" out in full length - such as Genesis "Suppers Ready" or Iron Butterfly's "In a gadda da vida". Winner of this world record chart was the song "Stairway to heaven" from Led Zeppelin, runners-up was "Wish you were here" Pink Floyd and No.3 Dire Straits "Brothers in arms".

Status Quo was voted with 5 songs:

No. 393 Rockin' all over the world

No. 451 In the army now

No. 1129 Whatever you want

No. 1395 Caroline

No. 1428 Down Down

Soon after this event the listeners wanted another record charts and after one year the german unity gave the reason. To show the german unitiy within the media this time the event was hosted by (again) SDR3 and the east german radio station Radio DT 64. From 17.8. - 25.8.1990 both radio stations played 2.008 songs. This time Sinead O'Connors "Nothing compares to U " was voted to No.1.

4 Status Quo songs were voted:

No. 681 In the army now

No. 712 Rockin' all over the world

No.1756 Whatever you want

No.1888 Caroline

When in 1994 the european unity became its structures, again SDR3 was the initiator of the 1. european record charts. 60.000 listeners from Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Austria and Radio Sarajewo / Croatia voted Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to heaven" to the first european No.1. Within the 1.555 Songs, who were played from 15.8. - 21.8.1994 Status Quo songs were voted too:

No. 823 In the army now

No. 1079 Rockin' all over the world

No. 1221 Caroline

No. 1434 Whatever you want

The novelty has gone, the whole thing has worn off and it was not until the year 1998 when the next super charts were held again. This time the union of the 2 big south-german radio and television stations SDR and SWF to the new station SWR was the reason to do another record charts. Within 1 week they played 1.400 songs and this time the winner was the german band Die Ärzte with their song "Männer sind Schweine" (Men are pigs) which was brandnew at the time. By the way: Runners up was Led Zeppelin's Song "Stairway to heaven" !

Even in the year 1998 some listeners remembered Status Quo and 2 Quo songs were voted in this chart:

No. 425 Whatever you want

No. 659 In the army now

Has the idea with the record charts turned into boredom?

No even in the year 2002 there was a very long charts over here in Germany. The reason was the 50th anniversary of the county Baden-Württemberg. Under the name "50 years 50 hours, 500 hits" the south-german radio station SWR1 played within 50 hours the 500 biggest hits of the last 50 years at the end of october 2002. Surprisingly the winner this time was Bill Haley's "Rock around the clock". Status Quo's Song "In the army now" was voted on No. 565. The votings this time were a bit of a surprise - e.g. The Stones all-time classic "Satisfaction" was voted only on No. 74.

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